Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Miraculous mystic Master SHIRDI SAI BABA
Miraculous mystic Master SHIRDI SAI BABA
Sai Baba of Shirdi did not write any books. All that is available to us is records of a number of conversations between him and his devotees preserved in various biographical accounts. The following is a conversation which a devotee, Nana Govind Chandorkar, a Deputy Collector who was a traditionally well read orthodox person, had with Sai Baba. It is an English translation (by this author) of pp.69-73 of Shirdi Sai Baba: kaN kaNDa deivam (in Tamil) published by All India Sai Samajam, Mylapore, Madras, 1969. The selection does not purport to be a comprehensive sample of what Sai Baba did or preached. But it certainly carries the flavour of the Master that was Sai Baba, though of course, part of the original flavour must have been missed in the translation.
Nana: Baba, I am fed up with this saMsAra. It is only nissAra (thast without content). Please help me cut the bonds which bind me to it. What appears as pleasant in the beginning ends in misery. Fate tosses us hither and thither. I don’t see an iota of happiness in this saMsAra.
Baba: Nana, you are prattling like a mad man. What you say is only partially true. You have misunderstood the truth. The saMsAra will exist as long as the body exists. No one can escape from it. How can you? Even I am under its clutches. The saMsAra is varied and different. It is the work of Desire and Anger. All the vagaries of the mind and the body constitute saMsAra. By running away and hiding yourself in a forest you cannot escape it. What you are now has been brought on you by yourself. You are only experiencing the fruits of your actions done by you in your previous lives. It is by that cause the effect of the appearance of this body has taken place. This is called deha-prArabdha. The soul gets a body just to experience the consequences of actions of its own previous lives. Without experiencing the consequences of prArabdha karma one cannot leave this world. Why do people look different? Why, in fact, do various living beings look different? It is all because of the karma of previous lives. A rich man’s dog rolls in joy on a cushioned sofa. A poor man’s dog rots at the street corner. The difference is because of prArabdha.
Nana: Since pleasure and pain do any way alternate in this samsAra, one feels like hating it and renouncing it. Is it not good to renounce?
Baba: Pleasure and pain are both mAyA. What appears as pleasant is not really a pleasure. People in the clutches of samsAra take the appearance of plesure as real pleasure and are drawn towards it. As a result of prArabdha karma one fellow gets tasty, dainty and rich food while another felllow has onoly stale bread to eat. The former thinks that he has no wants and the latter thinks he is a failure. Think well. Whatever you may eat, the result is the same. Appeasement of one’s hunger. One fellow covers his body with costly cloth with zari and all. Another does the same with a torn old rag. Both serve the same purpose. Pleasure and pain depend on the attitude of your mind. This is the effect of mAyA. Do not give place in your mind to thoughts of pleasure and pain.
mAyA manifests itself as the six enemies of Man.: Lust, Anger, Greed, Delusion, Pride and Envy. They make non-real things appear as real. A poor man, seeing the rich man wearing a gold ornament, wishes to have one like that for himself. This is greed. The others are similar to this. Conquer all six of these foes of Man. No desire will then rise in the mind. Otherwise you will become a slave of these six rogues. Use your discretion and kill them. You will not be affected by pleasure and pain caused by mAyA.
Let me tell you how you should go about in this samsAra. A wise person will be content with whatever he has, knowing full well that it is his prArabdha. If you have riches, be humble. A tree with more fruits in it will bend. But do not bend before all. One should certainly be firm and stern with wicked people. But with sAdhus and the devout, you should show humility and modesty.
Spend your wealth in charity and dharma. But do not be extravagant. This body is certainly impermanent but so long as it is there, wealth is necessary to a certain extent. Even bile is necessary for the health of the body. But do not become greedy as money is the be-all and end-all of life. Be charitable. But do not do wasteful expenditure.
Observe happily all the goings-on in the world. Do not forget God. Remember always: ‘This samsAra is not mine, it is God’s.’ Show your sympathy with the poor and the down-trodden. Do not hurt them by showing hate or disgust. Keep a constant mental analysis of the question: ‘Who am I?’
Nana: Baba, Who is God? How will He look? Where is He? How can we see Him?
Baba: Those who toil in samsAra neither understand what is right and wrong nor do they comprehen the nature of God. Pure thoughts are absent in them. Constantly being immersed in the ocean of samsAra they do not have faith in devotion or in the scriptures. They don’t reach God. They go towards hell.
On the other hand those who are eager to rise higher towards salvation, discard this state of bondage and begin to enquire wiuth discretion and intelligence. They are always itching to see God. They develop bhakti towards Him and observe the laws of the scriptures. They adopt nAma-japa and dhyAna and become a sAdhaka (an aspirant to reach God). They continuously move with the devout. When they reach a mature stage in their japa and dhyAna they become saintly. In that stage God and Man are alike. Praise and blame are one and the same for them. Desires have left them. The thought of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ are not any more there. They begin to see that their own AtmA and God are the same. They realize ‘I am brahman".
Observe how each one of them has reached God. You will yourself then understand that God permeates all animate and inanimate objects in the world.
God is everywhere. There is no place where He is not. What prevents us from seeing Him is the power of mAyA. I, you, this world, all are part of ISvara. Therefore no one should hate another. Never forget that the Lord is everywhere. That will generate Love in you. When love overflows, everything is obtained
6:42:35 PM
Posted By omkar ram Comments (0) Personals
1 comment:
Good work sir.
Shirdi Sai baba is the greatest mahatma that appeared on earth so far.
This statement aptly stands for any scruitiny.
When we see his life in different views like,
what god is, what religion means, what Rama, Krishna,Jesus and other Jnani's are.
He stands perfect example of all these.
As Paul Reps puts it, one cannot understand the life of Jesus without understanding Saibaba.
And in terms of Yogasastra he is a perfect yogi, by Mantra sastra he is the master of them,
command on vedas and quran he is the best and the goal of them as well.
I came to know about these after I go through the literature written by Master E.Bharadwaja.
As we dwell more and more into Baba's life we see more and more great he is.
Above all what he is asking us to do, how he turns the man good and thus humanity to the best level
, is matchless. These things are, not just literature, not just words, rather the best way to be practiced;
by any human of any religion and of any country or place.
The way he dragged Master E.Bharadwaja into his fold is a superb example. Master EB is hit by great sorrow
when his beloved niece passed away at an early age. Out of it, he turned into anveshana to answer the
questions those hit him with tremendous hardship. Questions like what is life, sorrow, what is this cycle etc.
After a five year long anveshana, during which he only gave value to the truth more than his life and small things
like food, education and family etc; finally he realized. In his words, in one evening suddenly a big sound
in his head happened and a state where all his questions were answered practically was experienced.
After this, his brother asked him to come to Shirdi. Master EB was on the stand that, If I have to realize god
I will do it. If it is something which others give, its there job to do it. They have to do it. Why should I go to them.
But on the request that he should just come to accompany and no need even to bow to Baba, Master Went to Shirdi.
At Shirdi, Master was shown the Samadhi of Baba. Master got irritated by the dead body being kept inside and
in that feeling, he could not eat the dinner and went to sleep. In the morning hours, he was crossing the Samadhi mandir
to have breakfast on the other street, he saw the lively statue of Baba and went to see it nearly.
As he is looking at Baba and saw Baba looking forward, he got the feeling that Baba is guiding the universe and
every part of it, and universe is just existing as by his command (sankalpa maatram) within him.
This thought was not merely verbal, but took its real form as the experience and Master got Samadhi sthithi.
By the time his brother found and wake him up, it was 12 noon, for five hours he was like that. He was standing and
looking Baba in the morning and in the afternoon he was sitting with his eyes closed.
From that movement his life and bodily activities changed.
This was on February 9, 1963. He first put his foot on the soil of Shirdi on February 8, 1963 (ie. today).
Later Master dedicated his life and in every movement he did as Baba asked to do. By the order of Baba and
he wrote Baba's life history and all the great literature.
Please find them out in www.saibharadwaja.org
You are welcoem to join www.saimasterforums.org for the indepth study of Baba and Mahatmas.
Everyyear we celebrate this with great joy and reverence.
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